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Informist, Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Wednesday ordered Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. to halt the sale of its diabetes drug Olymviq as it was prima facie similar in name with Novo Nordisk A/S' Ozempic drug. "According to me, there is a phonetic similarity and in a pharma(case), it's a threshold which I would not like to cross," said Justice Jyoti Singh.

 

"Freeze your hands on as is where is basis," Justice Singh told Dr. Reddy's. She asked Dr. Reddy's to consider dropping the Olymviq brand name and look for an alternative mark like Obeda, under which the company was already selling the diabetes drug. The high court will hear Novo Nordisk's trademark infringement suit against Dr. Reddy's on Friday.

 

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk held a primary consumption patent for diabetes and obesity drug semaglutide, which expired in September 2024. Novo Nordisk's secondary patent in India relating to the manufacturing process and delivery mechanism of semaglutide drug also expired on Mar. 20. Following this, Dr. Reddy's launched semaglutide injections under the brand name Obeda and Olymviq.

 

Pharmaceutical trademarks are subject to a heightened anti-confusion standard, where even a possibility of confusion must be avoided in public interest, said Novo Nordisk. If there is any possibility of such confusion in the case of medicines, public policy requires prevention of confusingly similar names, said Novo Nordisk.

 

Novo Nordisk said that permitting continued sales would flood the market and create third-party equities, making any later restraint ineffective. Novo Nordisk asked the court to bar Dr. Reddy's from manufacturing and selling Olymviq.

 

Earlier this month, the division bench of the Delhi High Court upheld a single-judge bench's Dec. 2 order that allowed Dr. Reddy's and its contract manufacturer OneSource Speciality Pharma Ltd. to manufacture their version of diabetes and obesity drug 'semaglutide' and export the same to countries where Novo Nordisk has not been granted a patent for the drug. The court had asked Dr. Reddy's to not sell their version of the semaglutide drug in India till Mar. 20., when Novo Nordisk's patent for the drug was to expire.

 

On the National Stock Exchange, shares of Dr. Reddy's closed 3.3% higher at INR 1,300.70.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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